4 Chapter 1 Introduction This manual describes how to annotate coreference in Dutch texts. It explains what coreference is, what types there are, what terminology we use, and how we encode coreference. The manual is therefore divided into four chapters: a general chapter about coreference, a chapter about annotating coreference, a chapter that describes our implementation, and finally a chapter with examples of coreference annotation in XML. 4

5 Chapter 2 What is coreference? 2.1 Introduction Coreference in its simplest form is about two expressions refering to the same object in the world. (2.1) [Xavier Malisse] 1 heeft zich geplaatst voor de halve finale in Wimbledon. [De Vlaamse tennisser] 1 zal dan tennissen tegen een onbekende tegenstander. (English: Xavier Malisse has qualified for the semi-finals at Wimbledon. The Flemish tennis player will play against an unknown opponent at that occassion.) In this example (due to (Hoste, 2005a, p.200)), two noun phrases are used to refer to the same person: Xavier Malisse and de Vlaamse tennisser. The coreference between the anaphor de Vlaamse tennisser and the antecedent Xavier Malisse is based on the compatibility of the syntax and the compatibility of the content and context (world knowledge). A similar relation to the antecedent can be established using pronouns. In this example, a pronoun would have been equally suitable, cf. example 2.2. (2.2) [Xavier Malisse] 1 heeft zich geplaatst voor de halve finale in Wimbledon. [Hij] 1 zal dan tennissen tegen een onbekende tegenstander. Annotating this type of coreference is relatively easy: we mark constituents with square brackets, we tag coreferential constituents with the same subscript, and the text is ready for further processing. We can collect all the information about each of the distinct referents in the text, for instance. However, since things are rarely simple, we must also account for cases which are not strictly coreferential. This chapter discusses those. In section 2.2, we present an overview of the definitions that are used in this manual. After that, in section 2.3, we discuss the various kinds of coreference that exist, and illustrate them with examples. In section 2.4 we discuss the kinds of syntactic categories that can act as markables those categories that are relevant for annotation. 5

6 CHAPTER 2. WHAT IS COREFERENCE? Definitions Anaphor Anaphora comes from the Greek ana pherein, to bring back. In other words: it brings back to mind something that was mentioned before. We use anaphora to describe lexical elements that bring back in mind an earlier element in the text. 1 Anaphora can be nominal as well as verbal. In this manual, we will only look into nominal anaphora. The first main division in nominal anaphora is a division into pronouns and full noun phrases. Pronouns are abbreviated references to some entity or entities in the discourse. They contain little information, only as much as is needed to identify the intended antecedent. Pronouns can be considered pointers to antecedents. Full noun phrases on the other hand have descriptive content that works as a criterium to single out a certain subset from a larger whole. Whereas pronouns can only impose restrictions on number and gender, full noun phrases express properties. Speaker choose those properties that uniquely describe the intended antecedent. Given that difference, it is more difficult for a pronoun to be anything other than coreferential than it is for a full noun phrase. We shall see more on this in section 2.4. Names are a different class of nominal phrases. Rather than refer to an element in the discourse, they refer to a deictic element. Even with repeated use, they have a constant referent in the immediate situation. In practice, they can be interchanged with pronouns or full noun phrases. Although formally they are not anaphors, in practice that does not make much difference in annotating, since they do refer to the same referent Coreference Coreference is about two expressions refering to the same entity, either within the discourse (anaphora) or within the immediate situation (deixis). As we saw in the previous section, there are roughly two types of anaphora to do that: pronouns and full noun phrases. Since pronouns have little means to do otherwise, they will typically refer exactly to their antecedent, and inherit all their contents from that antecedent. Exceptions are conceivable, of course, take example 2.3. (2.3) [The doctor] 1 entered the examination room. [She] 1 shook my hand. Here, the pronoun adds information about the antecedent that we did not have previously: the doctor is female. Still, this construction only adds information, it 1 Note that Van Deemter en Kibble (Van Deemter and Kibble, 2000) use anaphora in a different sense. Rather than using it as a term that describes a lexical element, they use it as a term that describes a relation between two lexical elements. In their view such a relation can be either anaphoric or coreferential. Apart from coreference we distinguish several other relations (metonymy, subset, bridging). We could use the term anaphoric to group those, but we will avoid it, in order to avoid confusion.

7 CHAPTER 2. WHAT IS COREFERENCE? 7 does not contradict it, nor does it change the focus of the discourse. If that is what the speaker wishes to do, he can do so much more easily with a full noun phrase. This can go very far, as is shown in example 2.4. (2.4) I called [the doctor] 1 to check my broken ankle. [The housecall] 2 cost me less than I expected. Here, the housecall relates to the doctor, but it is not identical to it Antecedent / referent That which an anaphor corefers with is called the antecedent. The antecedent can typically carry semantic content because of its own intrinsic meaning, or it can carry over semantic content from the antecedent it refers to. Having thus acquired semantic content, an anaphoric expression can function as an antecedent, too Anchor point Strict coreference implies identity between an anaphor and its antecedent. However, anaphors do not always repeat an entire referent. They may refer to part of said referent, or to a related element, and in that case, we cannot say that it is literally an antecedent anymore. However, referents, whether identical or not, can still act as a syntactic anchor point in the context, determining scope. For that reason we shall generalize over coreferential and non-referential referents as anchor points. See also example 2.4 in Types of coreference We distinguish the following types of reference Identity or strict coreference We already mentioned identity, i.e. two references to the exact same object, cf. examples 2.1 and 2.2, repeated here for convenience. 2.1 [Xavier Malisse] 1 heeft zich geplaatst voor de halve finale in Wimbledon. [De Vlaamse tennisser] 1 zal dan tennissen tegen een onbekende tegenstander. 2.2 [Xavier Malisse] 1 heeft zich geplaatst voor de halve finale in Wimbledon. [Hij] 1 zal dan tennissen tegen een onbekende tegenstander. As pointed out in 2.2.2, we typically use pronouns to indicate straightforward identity with a previous referent. In order to add more semantic content a full, descriptive noun phrase can also be used. This is necessary when two equally suitable antecedents are available, but it can also be done simply to offer more information to the reader. Example 2.1 is a typical example of newspaper style. Note that expressions like eerstgenoemde, laatstgenoemde and het voorgaande (the former, the latter, the previous) may look like full noun phrases, but in fact they behave exactly like pronouns. Their semantic content operates purely on the textual level. We could consider them verbalized pronouns.

8 CHAPTER 2. WHAT IS COREFERENCE? Part/whole coreference Another example of a partial coreference relation is when reference is made to a subpart of an object that was already mentioned in the discourse. These can typically take two forms: reference to members of a set, or reference to components of an object. (2.5) In de Raadsvergadering is het vertrouwen opgezegd in [het college] 1. In een motie is gevraagd aan [alle wethouders] 2 hun ontslag in te dienen. English: In the council meeting the confidence in [mayor-and-aldermen] 1 has been withdrawn. A motion requests that [all aldermen] 2 resign. (2.6) Hij kon [zijn auto] 1 niet meer starten. [De benzinetank] 2 was leeg. (English: He could not get his car to start. The gas tank was empty.) Example 2.5 is an instance of reference to members of a set, 2.6 demonstrates reference to a component of an anchor point Type-token coreference Type-token coreference occurs in so-called paycheck pronouns, a term which is named after an example from (Jacobson, 1977). (2.7) The man who gave [his paycheck] 1 to his wife was wiser than the man who gave [it] 1 to his mistress. In this case, his paycheck and it do not refer to the same object in the world. It refers to a different object, but with the same meaning. That suggests that reference can occur on different levels. While it may be more common to interpret an utterance and assume that reference occurs on the interpretation level, reference to the meaning of a word, the semantic level, is also possible Time-indexed coreference Two expressions may refer to the same object in the world only at a particular point in time. Take example 2.8, for instance, due to (Hoste, 2005a, p.217)). (2.8) [Bert Degraeve] 1, tot voor kort [gedelegeerd bestuurder] 2, gaat aan de slag als [chief financial and administration officer] 3. (English: Bert Degraeve, until recently delegated manager, will start as chief financial and administration officer.) The expression tot voor kort expresses the temporateness of a predicate. The truthvalue of this utterance is related to the time at which the utterance was made.

9 CHAPTER 2. WHAT IS COREFERENCE? Metonymy A very common way of refering to an object in the real world is by figure of speech: metonymy. Metonymy is defined as a rhetorical substitution of one thing for another based on their association or proximity. The crown is a common way of refering to a monarch, for instance, and in Belgium the castle of king Baudoin, Laken, is a common description of the Belgian monarchy. (This example is also due to (Hoste, 2005a, p.218).) (2.9) [Boudewijn] 1 moest in die dagen niet lang zoeken naar kanalen om zijn macht in daden om te zetten. Het lijdt geen twijfel dat [Laken] 1 gedurende de hele periode [zijn] 1 rol in de coulissen heeft gespeeld. [Het paleis] 1 is nooit veel meer, maar zeker nooit minder geweest dan [de exponent van de Belgische heersende klasse in haar conservatisme, in haar katholicisme, en met haar financieel-economische macht] 2. English: In those days, Baudoin did not need to look long for channels to turn his power into deeds. There can be no doubt that Laken has played its role behind the screens during the entire period The palace was never much more, but certainly not less than the exponent of the Belgian ruling class in its conservatism, its catholicism and its financial economical power. Annotating this phenomenon is tricky. While the denotation of the term is basically the figurative and not the literal reading, it is hard to pinpoint what that figurative reading is. As can be seen in example 4.1, the possessive pronoun zijn in zijn rol in de coulissen agrees syntactically with its antecedent. The same happens in the English translation: we choose its to refer to the term Laken. However, in a next sentence, chosing the proper pronoun is not trivial. Speakers will typically avoid this situation by using a full noun phrase, and either refer to the metaphoric sense or to the literal sense. Example 4.1 avoids this choice: het paleis maintains the geographical term, but still states properties that apply to humans, not buildings Possessive relations Possessive relations express a relation between a possessor and a possessee. (2.10) [Rita] 1 sprak [[haar] 1 tegenstander] 2 ernstig toe. English: Rita addressed her opponent sternly. In example 2.10 haar refers to Rita, but haar tegenstander does not. As a result, haar tegenstander can be added to the list of predicates that apply to Rita, but it is not coreferential Bound anaphora Rather than making statements about singular objects in the real world, we can also express properties of general categories. This we do by using bound anaphora, as in example 2.11.

10 CHAPTER 2. WHAT IS COREFERENCE? 10 (2.11) [Iedereen die iets nieuws wil bereiken] 1 moet [zijn] 1 nek uitsteken. English: Anyone who wants to achieve anything new, has to stick out his neck. Example 2.12 is a comparable, normal case. (2.12) [Herman] 1 moet [zijn] 1 nek uitsteken. English: Herman has to stick out his neck. Zijn in example 2.12 refers to a clear, singular referent in the real world. Zijn in example 2.11 does not. We cannot paraphrase 2.11 as Anyone who wants to achieve anything new, has to stick out [anyone s neck]. Such bound anaphora have a more complex meaning than that, and it is hard to express this in terms of coreference. See also Predicate nominals Predicative noun phrases do not express a coreference relation, even though they are close. Two examples of a predicate relation (the first one due to (Hoste, 2005a, p.215)) can be seen in example 2.13 and (2.13) [Het mediabedrijf Vivendi Universal] 1 is [een sterke stijger binnen de DJ Stoxx50] 2. (English: Media concern Vivendi Universal is a strong climber within DJ Stoxx50.) (2.14) [Ed Nijpels] 1 was als [voorzitter] 2 verbonden aan het Wereld Natuurfonds Nederland. The annotation of predicates is still an open issue. MUC (Fisher et al., 1995), and ACE (program, 2003) annotation schemes do annotate predicates as part of a coreference relation, while (Van Deemter and Kibble, 2000) and (Davies et al., 1998) argue against the annotation of predicates in coreference relations, because they claim that predicates not actually refer. While we agree with Van Deemter and Kibble that predicatives are not coreferential, they are sufficiently close to be useful for our purposes. Predicative relations contain information about the antecedent which can be valuable for practical applications such as information extraction or summarization. We choose to follow the MUC annotation scheme and include predicative relations in our coreference annotation, but with a separate flag. See chapter Appositions A special case of coreference is that of coreferential appositions. Appositions come in two flavours: repetitive and restrictive. (2.15) Hu Jintao, de president van China, hield een toespraak voor de VN. (English: Hu Jintao, the president of China, held a speech to the UN.)

11 CHAPTER 2. WHAT IS COREFERENCE? 11 (2.16) De Nederlandse bankgroep ABN-AMRO heeft over het tweede kwartaal van 2002 een nettowinst behaald van 534 miljoen euro. (English: In the second quarter of 2002 the Dutch bankers group ABN AMRO have produced a nett profit of 534 billion euro.) In example 2.15 two noun phrases are used to describe the same individual. Either noun phrase can be omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence. That is not the case in example 2.16 (due to (Hoste, 2005a, p.214)). Such constituents belong together, they have a single id. If we want to omit part of it, it would have to be the first part, de Nederlandse bankgroep, which is more descriptive but less uniquely refering than the second half, ABN-AMRO Modality and negation If and when we decide to annotate predicate nominals, we should also annotate modality and negation, then these are typically phenomena that occur in predicates. It is obvious that A is not coreferential with B if a speaker uses negation and says that A is not B. But what about A is not exactly the prototype of B? There is negation, but more than negation, this construction expresses modality: A is B to some extent. (2.17) Een partij als het CDA is, volgens Bert de Vries en andere prominente partijleden, tegenwoordig nou niet direct het toonbeeld van sociale betrokkenheid. (English: A political party like CDA, according to Bert de Vries and other prominent members, currently is hardly a model of social involvement.) Similarly, the use of words like vaak, or irrealis tense, expresses modality. (2.18) De criminelen, vaak genaturaliseerde Belgen,... (English: The criminals, often naturalized Belgians,... ) (2.19) Filip Dewinter had wel eens de nieuwe burgemeester van Antwerpen kunnen worden. (English: Filip Dewinter could have become the new major of Antwerp) In all of these examples (the latter two due to (Hoste, 2005a, p.214, 216)) there is a partial or potential coreference relation. 2.4 Syntactic categories Having discussed in some detail the different kinds of coreference, let us now focus on the markables: those syntactic categories that can either be anaphors or antecedents, or both, as is often the case. We have mentioned pronouns and full noun phrases (cf. section 2.1), but there is more to be said about this topic.

12 CHAPTER 2. WHAT IS COREFERENCE? Pronouns Pronouns come in several different flavours. We distinguish personal pronouns, R- pronouns, possessive pronouns, indefinite pronouns, reflexive pronouns and nominal ellipsis. Personal pronouns Personal pronouns are words such as I, it, we, but also me, him, us and my, its, our. Personal pronouns refer to things and animate creatures. In languages such as English, the neuter pronoun it refers to things, and the common pronouns he and she refer to males and females, respectively. In languages such as German, that distinction has little relation to the semantic content of the words. While Frau (woman) is feminine, Mädchen (girl) is neuter. Dutch is somewhere in between, with the Dutch that is spoken in Flanders tending more towards German, and the Dutch that is spoken in the Netherlands tending more towards English. In example 2.20 zij refers to regularisatieprocedure an example of the Flemish way of pronoun use. (2.20) [De regularisatieprocedure] 1 startte begin [Zij] 1 moest personen die al jaren illegaal in [België] 2 verblijven de kans geven via een regularisatie wettelijk in [België] 2 te wonen. English: The regularization procedure was launched in the beginning of It was intended to enable persons which reside illegally in Belgium to legally live in Belgium through regularization. Demonstrative pronouns Demonstrative pronouns are very similar to personal pronouns. They can occur wherever personal pronouns occur and they, too, have a common and a neuter variant. The difference is that demonstrative pronouns are for pointing, either close or further removed. common neuter (hij/zij) (het) here deze dit there die dat Example 2.21 and 2.22 show that nearness or remoteness is not always literally true. Example 2.23 shows that demonstratives can also refer to phrases or even sentences. Reference to non-nominal antecedent is beyond the scope of our project, however. (2.21) Belangstellenden kunnen ook zelf [een projectvoorstel] 1 indienen op voorwaarde dat [dit] 1 inpasbaar is in The Language Blueprint. Those-who-are-interested can also submit a project proposal, on the condition that it fits within The Language Blueprint. (2.22) Aangeraden wordt [taxi s] 1 per telefoon te bestellen, aangezien [deze] 1 doorgaans meer betrouwbaar zijn.

13 CHAPTER 2. WHAT IS COREFERENCE? 13 It is recommended to order taxis by phone, as these are usually more reliable. (2.23) [Heeft u ook een nieuwsbericht of een aankondiging] 1, dan vernemen wij [dat] 1 graag! If you also have a news report or announcement, we should like to hear so. Note that demonstratives can also occur as determiners, as is shown in examples (2.24) Wijzigingen voor [deze databank] 1 kunt u melden via Changes for this databank can be reported via (2.25) Bij [dat ontwerpproces] 1 werken technisch opgeleide studenten samen met ontwerpers en mediakunstenaars. In that design proces technically educated student work with designers and media artists. (2.26) De toestand van [die wegen] 1 is veelal zeer slecht. The condition of those roads is often very bad. R-pronouns Related to demonstrative pronouns are R-pronouns. They all have in common that they contain an R: er and daar. 2 Er has other functions as well, cf. example 2.30, where quantitative er is used. The following examples are from the D-COI-corpus 3. (2.27) De wet in [Duitsland] 1 voorziet in persvrijheid, [er] 1 is geen officiële censuur. English: The law in Germany provides a free press, there is no official censorship. (2.28) Het reizen naar [het gebied] 1 wordt ontraden in verband met de aardbeving die [daar] 1 op 28 maart 2005 heeft plaatsgevonden. English: Travel to the area is discouraged because of the earthquake that took place there on March (2.29) Aangeraden wordt in geheel Indonesië [publieke gelegenheden] 1 [waar] 1 veel buitenlanders komen te mijden. Tourists are recommended to avoid in all of Indonesia public places that attract many foreigners. (2.30) [Salicylzuur] 1 werd al gebruikt, zelfs Hippocrates kende [er] 1 de werking van. Salicylic acid was already being used, even Hippocrates knew [of-it] the effect. 2 Waar is an R-pronoun as well, but it is either a relative pronoun (de plaats waar ik woon) or an interrogative pronoun (waar woon jij?). 3 See

14 CHAPTER 2. WHAT IS COREFERENCE? 14 Possessive pronouns Bare possessive constructions (mine, yours) in Dutch are usually not realised in the same way they are in English. In spoken language it does occur (Mijne is groter dan jouwe! mine is bigger than yours!), but the standard form is by use of a substantialized determiner: de mijne, het jouwe. These should be considered noun phrases rather than pronouns. (2.31) Ieder het zijne. English: To each his own. (2.32) Ik denk er het mijne van. English: I ve got my own thoughts on this. Possessive pronouns also occur as determiners in noun phrases. Examples of this are given in sentences , the latter due to (Hoste, 2005a, p.206). (2.33) [De Bank of Japan] 1 heeft beslist [haar] 1 rentepolitiek te behouden. English: The Bank of Japan has decided to keep its interest rate policy. (2.34) Maar al snel bleek dat ook [circuits van mensenhandelaren] 1 de procedure uitgekozen hadden om [hun] 1 klanten België binnen te loodsen. English: But soon, it became clear that also circuits of human traffickers had picked the procedure to sneak their customers into Belgium. All three kinds of possessive pronouns have in common that they are anaphoric as well as predicational. They express a possessive relation between an individual and some other entity. Indefinite pronouns An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun referring to an identifiable but not specified person or thing. An indefinite pronoun conveys the idea of all, any, none, or some. Typical indefinite pronouns are men, je and ze, but also iedereen, iemand, niemand, sommigen and iets are indefinite pronouns. An indefinite pronoun can be anaphoric, in the sense that the same unspecified person or thing can be referred to again, cf. example (2.35) Opvallend is dat [men] 1 in de sociale huursector vooral kiest voor een ketel met een verbeterd rendement (VR-ketel), terwijl eigenaar-bewoners meestal de voorkeur gaven aan een HR-ketel. English: Remarkable is that people in the social housing area prefer a improved yield central heating boiler (tr?), while owner-inhabitants usually prefer a high yield central heating boiler (tr?). (2.36) [Jouw kast] 1 was nog heel mooi. Waarom hebben [ze] 2 [die] 1 weggegooid? English: Your closet was still fine. Why did they throw it away?

15 CHAPTER 2. WHAT IS COREFERENCE? 15 (2.37) Die dingen kun [je] 1 niet zien. [Je] 1 kunt ze niet ruiken. [Je] 1 kunt ze niet aanraken. Maar ze zijn er wel. English: These things one cannot see. One cannot smell. One cannot touch. But they are there. Reflexive pronouns Reflexive pronouns are pronouns that refer to the other argument of the same predicate, e.g. ik was mezelf (I was myself) or hij vergist zich (he is mistaken). Since third person is most common in newspaper text, the third person reflexive pronoun zich or zichzelf will be the most frequent form that we encounter. The examples are due to (Hoste, 2005a, p.208). (2.38) [Passagiers van gekaapte vlucht 93 van United Airlines] 1 offerden [zich] 1 op. English: Passengers of the hijacked flight 93 of United Airlines sacrificed themselves. (2.39) De komende weken wijdt [Coenen] 1, net terug uit vakantie, [zich] 1 volledig aan de Donna-evenementen. English: During the next weeks, Coenen, who just returned from vacation, will commit himself to the Donna events. Note that these cases are inherent reflexives: the subject of the predicate must refer to the object. This is different from normal reflexives, where the second argument of a predicate may or may not refer to the first argument. (2.40) Toen [Jan] 1 [een winnaar] 2 moest aanwijzen, koos [hij] 1 [Piet] 3 /[zichzelf] 1. English: When Jan had to point out a winner, he chose Piet/himself. Nominal ellipsis (Zipf, 1949) formulates the principle of Speaker s Economy, which states that speakers try to minimize the amount of words needed. Pronouns exploit that principle, and in the case of nominal ellipsis they exploit it to a maximum: they do not repeat a given expression, but leave it out altogether. The following example is due to (Hoste, 2005a, p. 15): (2.41) Roll out bottom pie crust and place in 10 inch pie pan and set aside. For purposes of annotation, this is a very inconvenient habit, as there is nothing left to annotate. However, since a predicate that applies to an elliptic anaphor also applies to its antecedent information we want e.g. a Question Answering system to be able to retrieve, it is relevant to annotate ellipsis as well Noun phrases Noun phrases can be single out a class of referents, using a semantically meaningful description. Noun phrases are potentially the most complex categories, with all the prepositional phrases, adverbial phrases and coordinations they can consist of.

16 CHAPTER 2. WHAT IS COREFERENCE? 16 Simple noun phrases In its simplest form a noun phrase consists of a possibly empty determiner (an article or a quantifier) and a noun, with a possibility for adjectives. In Dutch, adjectives are placed between the determiner and the noun. Prepositional phrases follow the noun. Example 2.42 shows several kinds of simple noun phrases. De onzekere sfeer is a Det-Adj-N construction. Meer stabiliteit is Det-N, and het land (Det-N) is a simple noun phrase inside a prepositional phrase in het land (P-NP), which in turn is a modifier to interne spanningen (Adj-N). The entire noun phrase is bracketed as follows: [ NP Adj-N-[ P P P-NP]]. (2.42) [De onzekere sfeer] 1 maakt langzaam plaats voor [meer stabiliteit] 2, hoewel [interne spanningen in [het land] 3 ] 4 nog niet geheel zijn verdwenen. English: the uncertain atmosphere is slowly giving in to more stability, although internal tensions in the country have not yet fully disappeared. Conjoined noun phrases Conjoined noun phrases are put together using words like en (and), or (of) and met (with). The most important point about conjoined noun phrases is their complexity. As an antecedent a conjoined noun phrase can be addressed both in part and as a whole. Example 2.43 is due to (Hoste, 2005a, p. 205). (2.43) [Marc Coenen] 1 volgt [Jan Hautekiet] 2 op als nethoofd van jongerenmuziekzender Studio Brussel. [Coenen] 1 stond 19 jaar geleden, samen met Schoukens en [Hautekiet] 2, aan de wieg van Studio Brussel. English: Marc Coenen succeeds Jan Hautekiet as head of Studio Brussel. 19 years ago, Coenen was one of the founders of the youth music station together with Hautekiet and Jan Schoukens. Example 2.44 shows that the proper names pick out the separate referents, whereas ze refers to both Jan en Piet. (2.44) We hebben gisteren [[Jan] 1 en [Piet] 2 ] 3 ontmoet. [Piet] 2 vertelde dat [ze] 3 op weg waren naar een concert van Helmut Lotti. [Jan] 1 had er duidelijk geen zin in. English: Yesterday, we met Jan and Piet. Piet told us that they were on their way to a concert of Helmut Lotti. Jan apparently didn t feel like it. Noun phrases containing relative clauses Apart from adjectives and prepositional phrases, which we have gathered under the term simple noun phrase, a noun phrase can also be modified by a relative clause. There are two kinds of relative clauses: one restrictive (beperkende bijzin), the other one elaborative (uitbreidende bepaling). In Dutch the distinction is expressed in typography. Elaborative relative clauses are placed between commas, restrictive

17 CHAPTER 2. WHAT IS COREFERENCE? 17 ones are not. Examples 2.45 and 2.46 have a distinct meaning. In the former the phrase die het mooiste zong is predicative to de tenor, in the latter the two terms are coreferential. (2.45) De tenor die het mooiste zong won de eerste prijs. (2.46) De tenor, die het mooiste zong, won de eerste prijs. Example 2.45 expresses the proposition that the first prize was won by the tenor who sung best. Example 2.46, however, expresses the proposition that the first prize was won by the tenor, and this tenor sung best. In the first sentence, there might be more tenors, in the second sentence, there is only one. Example 2.47 is an example from the D-COI-corpus. It is a noun phrase that singles out a set of referents (de twee kandidaten die in de eerste ronde de meeste stemmen hebben gekregen), whereas die al jaren bevriend is met Toledo in example 2.48 elaborates on a referent that was already established. Example 2.48 is due to (Hoste, 2005a, p. 205). (2.47) Op 5 mei volgt een tweede stemronde tussen [de twee kandidaten die in de eerste ronde de meeste stemmen hebben gekregen]. English: On the fifth of May there is a second election round between the two candidates who received the majority of the votes in the first round. (2.48) [President Alejandro Toledo] 1 reisde dit weekend naar Seattle voor een gesprek met [Microsoft topman Bill Gates] 2. [Gates, die al jaren bevriend is met [Toledo] 1 ] 2, investeerde onlangs zo n Dollar in Peru. English: This weekend, president Alejandro Toledo traveled to Seattle to talk with Microsoft top executive Bill Gates. Gates, who has been close friends with Toledo for years, recently invested about Dollar in Peru Phrases without a head noun Phrases with nominalized adjectives, infinitives, gerunds or quantifiers as heads can also enter into coreference relations. Example 2.49, from (Hoste, 2005a, p 210), shows an antecedent that consists of a gerund (het eten van 2 stuks fruit per dag). (2.49) [Het eten van 2 stukken fruit per dag] 1 wordt nog te weinig gestimuleerd. [Het] 1 is nochtans heel goed voor de gezondheid. English: Eating two pieces of fruit each day is still under-stimulated. It is however very healthy. (In English, the Dutch nominalized infinitive is translated as a gerund.) Infinitives and gerunds in Dutch only differ in that gerunds have a determiner, and infinitives don t. The following is an infinitive. (2.50) [Eerlijk zeggen wat je denkt] is het moeilijkste wat er is. English: Honestly saying what you think is the hardest thing there is.

18 CHAPTER 2. WHAT IS COREFERENCE? 18 Example 2.51 contains a nominalized adjective het volgende. adjective volgend that was derived from a verb volgen. In fact, this is an (2.51) Reizigers dienen zich rekenschap te geven van [het volgende]. English: Travellers should be aware of the following. Example 2.52 is similar, except that there is no verb onderstaan. Onderstaand is derived from the verb staan and the preposition onder. (2.52) In Iran kan, met inachtneming van [het onderstaande], worden gereisd. English: In Iran one can, taking into consideration what follows below, travel. Count nouns can also be used as the head of a noun phrase. Here, de eerste onder de gelijken does so. (2.53) De koningen van de verschillende vorstendommen binnen dit rijk kozen uit hun midden de keizer, die [de eerste onder de gelijken] was. English: The kings of the various kingdoms within this empire chose from theirs midst the emperor, who was the first among equals Discontinuous NPs A final category is that of discontinuous noun phrases. They are not in themselves coreferential, but they can be a problem in the process of annotating. The meaning of the complete noun phrase may be different to the meaning of the parts, and so it is necessary to consider both. (2.54) Ik heb [de jongens] 1a gezien [die jou zouden helpen] 1b. [Zij] 1 zagen mij niet. English: I saw the boys who were supposed to help you. They did not see mee. The antecedent of zij in example 2.54 is de jongens die jou zouden helpen, and not just de jongens (or die jou zouden helpen).

20 CHAPTER 3. ABOUT CORPUS ANNOTATION 20 The corea project includes all of these categories, and modifies some of them. Reviewing the list helps us make an inventory of what we need. First of all, we need to be able to generalize over time. Coreferentiality is generally a temporary issue, and even within a text we sometimes need to be able to acknowledge that. Second, we need to be able to distinguish between the sense and the reference of an expression. Not only for type-token coreference (3), but also for bound anaphora (8) and for metonymy (9). So how is this done? In the next sections, we describe the technical bit: the formal notation, including attributes and XML-notation. 3.2 Related Annotation Work We can find several coreference annotation schemes for the English language, for example (Fisher et al., 1995), (Hirschman and Chinchor, 1997), (program, 2003), (Davies et al., 1998), (Passoneau and Litman, 1997) and (Tutin et al., 2000). For Dutch, we have the annotation guidelines developed by (Hoste, 2005b) which we use as the basis of the guidelines described in chapter 4. Here we give an overview of the annotation scheme of (Hoste, 2005b). This scheme is largely based on the MUC-6 (Fisher et al., 1995) and MUC-7 (Hirschman and Chinchor, 1997) annotation scheme for English. Coreference relations are annotated using SGML tagging within the text stream. That looks as follows: (3.1) Een week eerder had <COREF ID= 202 TYPE= IDENT REF= 208 MIN= Jacques Chirac >huidig president Jacques Chirac </COREF> <COREF ID=209 TYPE= IDENT REF= 208 > zijn</coref> kandidatuur met veel meer vlagvertoon bekend gemaakt. The annotation scheme has the following attributes: type indicates the type of relationship that exists between anaphora and antecedents. Hoste describes four types of coreference relations: ident, isa, bound and mod. ident indicates identity relations as described in section isa is an abbreviation of identity of sense and refers to the paycheck pronouns mentioned in section bound indicates bound relations as described in section and mod refers to modality as discussed in section id is the unique identity number of a phrase, randomly assigned. ref contains the unique id of the antecedent of an anaphor. min is the minimum string that is the head of the phrase. time is used to indicate time-dependent identity. This attribute allows for a special tag in which the temporariness of identity relations can be expressed. Except in the case of tautologies, identity is always temporary but assigning time label is not always relevant. When the identity changes within the span of time that

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